Don’t block my blog, says Dr Mahathir

Don’t block my blog, says Dr Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR: It is now necessary to censor the Internet, said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, noting that it can be used for both good and bad.

“Not to block out chedet.cc. Please don’t block that out. But to block out all this filth that comes to us through the Internet,” he added in a sarcastic jibe directed at those who allegedly wish to see his blog silenced, prompting laughter from the audience at the World Bloggers and Social Media Summit.

Dr Mahathir said that social media is good for him to “irritate a lot of people”, however, he urged the public not to misuse it, as irritation can cause conflict.

“Of course if there is something important you have to do, even if it causes irritation to some people … like saying somebody should resign.

Dr Mahathir also said he was told that 30 million people accessed to his blog.

“But they don’t pay me anything.

“If I charged them 10 sen I might be a millionaire by now. But it doesn’t matter – as long as I get the message to them,” he added.

Dr Mahathir said this in his special address, titled “Social Media and the Future: View From An Elder Statesman”, at Berjaya Times Square Hotel here on Thursday.

He related how he chaired a meeting of experts in the communications industry during his tenure as premier.

“They told me I must never censor the Internet. I thought that was very reasonable. So I said no, we must not censor the Internet,” he added.

He said, however, he has changed his mind, likening social media to a knife.

“With a knife, you can carve beautiful objects. You can also stab another person and kill him.

“The alternative media is like a knife. It can be used for the good of society or it can be used to make society less liveable,” said Dr Mahathir.

Describing himself as curious and “not very computer savvy”, he decided to type “sex” as a keyword to see what he could get.

“Sure enough, I got a lot of filth. Dirty pictures. I think even a young child of three years old could spell out ‘sex’ and get all this dirt.

“And they will grow up with this filth filling their brains and they will not be good for society. It’s easy to access. Not so easy to prevent children, especially teenagers.

“Teens are very excitable. They have grown new appendages, and when they get excited in the wrong way they do the wrong things. So we have a lot of sex crimes nowadays,” he added.

On the recently passed amendments to the Sedition Act, Dr Mahathir said it was good if the law was directed at sedition.

“For example, there are laws on stealing to reduce thievery. It’s the same with the Sedition Act. It’s a good law if it’s directed at sedition. Unfortunately, there’s a tendency to abuse the Act,” he said.

“So the Sedition Act is there to prevent people from saying that this country should have a civil war and we should overthrow the Government.

“But if you say the Government is not doing too well, we need a change – that’s not sedition. Am I talking about myself, or …?” he added.

The former premier was speaking at the fourth edition of the summit, which is held in conjunction with Malaysia Social Media Week.

Jointly organised by Malaysia Social Media Chambers (SMC) and My Events International, the event aims at connecting people, content and conversations around emerging trends in social and mobile media.

It features a diverse roster of more than 30 international speakers and social media specialists from about 10 countries.

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